Overview

Thinking About Political Reform: How to Fix, or Not Fix, American Government and Politics offers the most comprehensive and highly accessible analysis of reform proposals available. It treats both the causes and consequences of structural, procedural, and behavioral problems, assessing a wide variety of reform proposals from the perspectives of political science, economics, law, journalism, and politics.Author John R. Johannes places reform proposals in the context of seven key standards for sound democratic government. He applies those standards and an up-to-date review of the scholarly literature and current events to the reform agenda, suggesting several approaches to evaluate, for example, the tensions between Congress and the presidency, election systems, or political parties. Johannes reminds students that reforms in one area are bound to have consequences in others, thereby advocating a system-wide approach to reform and a wariness of ad hoc reforms prompted by political events.

Full Product Details

9780199937998

Table of Contents

Reviews

I would definitely recommend it as one of the best summaries and critical evaluation of reform proposals currently available. One of the book's best points is the appreciation of how reforms interact, and how any serious reform proposal has to take this into account and also consider the consequences if only part of their reform package is actually adopted. As the author notes, we have got part of the package of responsible party government, but without the full adoption it doesn't seem to be working so well. There are many good insights like this throughout the text. Taylor E. Dark III, Cal State University, Los Angeles This book's competitive advantage is that it is more complete in its coverage of reform ideas across traditional course topics. American government courses are typically divided into three parts: foundations, politics, and institutions. This book includes chapters appropriate for all three parts of the course. There are no gaps. Rodd Freitag, University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire If you wanted to read a text that made a pretty grand attempt at uncovering and explaining a huge array of political and electoral reforms that challenges established conventions, you should read this. - Rick D. Henderson, Texas State University To my knowledge, there is nothing else out there on the market today that attempts to tackle the subject of reform in American politics in such a comprehensive and sweeping way... it also stands out in its embedding of a truly huge range of issues within a broader theoretical framework that connects quite naturally to the basic themes that are addressed in an introductory American politics course. John P. Forren, Miami University

Author Information

John R. Johannes is Professor of Political Science at Villanova University. He is the author of To Serve the People: Congress and Constituency Service and Policy Innovation in Congress and coeditor of Money, Elections, and Democracy: Reforming Congressional Campaign Finance.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available